


Odyssey

by Obvious Reactionary (Mysterious_Prophetess)



Series: Lab Rat [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Keith (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 11:34:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7800250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterious_Prophetess/pseuds/Obvious%20Reactionary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After escaping captivity, Keith is trying to reunite with his team. However, he must land on a planet soon if he doesn't want to starve first, and landing on planets is made all the harder whenever you are now one of the enemy. Wandering the cosmos has never been more complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Odyssey

Red was still in slightly rough shape as Keith flew it trying to find any hint of the Castle of Lions. He also had no idea how long it had been since he had been captured. The rumble of his stomach alerted him to a very important fact: Keith was going to need to stop on a planet and find food soon. He didn’t know how he was going to pay for it, but if he didn’t want to starve before rejoining the others, it was something he needed. There was a neutral plant a few clicks out from his position. 

————————— ———————

He was stripping off his armor whenever he caught sight of his bare hand and froze.

Keith had almost forgotten what had been done to him. He stared at a purple hand and sighed. If he, a Galra, walked out there, he would surely frighten the people on the planet. He looked out the view screen and he had landed in a forest of sorts, so he could use his survival skills and get food that way. It wasn’t the best method but it had the least chance of frightening the natives.

————————— ———————

A rabbit-lizard thing was roasting over a small fire Keith had started in front of his lion. Though it was an alien critter, gutting it wasn’t too different than gutting a regular rabbit on Earth. He hoped it tasted like rabbit. Though, if it tasted like lizard, that wouldn’t be too bad either. There was a shuffling in the woods behind him. As a human, he would have never heard it, but his unwilling transformation had a few perks, he guessed. Keith drew the dagger and looked in that direction. The low light was plenty for his transformed eyes to reveal it was a sort of small lizard-like alien stalking through the woods. The clothing it wore indicated sentience. It approached the fire with its arms up, three fingered hands spread in an expression of peace.

“Please, no harm I mean you!” the voice was a child’s. Keith nodded as he sheathed his blade.

“Where are your parents?” Keith asked.

“Hunting them, purple demons are. Like you, they look.” the child said.

“ _Galra_. I’m Keith. What are you called?”

“Hoda, I am.”

“Well, Hoda, where are they now?” Keith asked.

“The other side of the forest, they are.” Holda said. There was a brief moment of silence before Hoda’s stomach rumbled. 

“I’ll be back. Try to save some of that for me, alright, Hoda?” Keith said as he stalked into the forest. As much as he hated himself for it, he was loving the advantages that came with being a Galra.

———— ————

Keith stayed patches of darkness even he was having trouble seeing out of for cover and used his hearing and sense of smell. Fortunately, he was down wind. Three Galra scents. Thirty scents like Hoda. Three that smelled _a lot_ like Hoda, probably family, and six metallic scents. Galra metal. The sounds they made indicated droids. There was also the smell of blood, but it didn’t match the Galra or the other scents. Some third thing?

“We’re missing one. Those two lizards had two offspring.” This voice was gruff, and the fact it was aggressive let Keith know this was probably a Galra.

“What does one little lizard matter in the long run, anyway?” this voice was slimy and oily.

“It matters because we were ordered by Commander Hattagaor to bring him the entire village!” the last voice was deep and rumbling. Keith leapt up into a tree as quietly as a squirrel and stared down at the scene. There was a fire going and some weird lizard-deer-fox thing was being processed by a large lizard person like Hoda at gun point. That explained the blood.

When Hoda grew up, he’d have some impressive horns. These three Galra did not impress Keith, who had faced Zarkon himself as well as Sendak and his underling. The one wth the deep, rumbling voice was in charge. He was a powerfully built Galra with ears like Keith’s. The other two were more like Sendak when it came to their ears, only theirs weren’t as large or fluffy.

“We’re being watched.” 

 

The leader had his blaster pointed right at Keith, “Get down here, cub.” Keith dropped from the tree landing in a crouch, ears back, eyes narrowed, and fangs bared.

“What the Quiznak are you doing so far from your parents, kid?” It was Oily Voice.

“Don’t have any,” Keith said.

“Or were you disowned for being a prisoner?” Gruff Voice said.

“They were dead before that,” Keith said.

“How did you, a delinquent Galra Cub, get so far from the nearest colony?” Leader said. Keith stayed silent. Leader sighed before he laid his gun down and gestured for his goons to do likewise and the droids were signaled to shut down. Keith stood up but stayed alert.

“How did you get here?” Leader said.

“I flew myself here,” Keith said.

“Did you steal a ship?” Oily Voice said.

“Farlan, I’ll ask the questions,” Leader said, “Did you?”

“No!” Keith said. 

“What did you do that you were a prisoner?” Leader asked.

“I existed,” Keith said. 

“Cross-breed?” Leader said.

“Alien species,” Keith said. Without telegraphing his punch, he dropped the Leader before ducking a grab from Farlan only to see Gruff drop him.

 

“I’ve heard of some sick things in my time in the Resistance, but this is the first I’ve encountered a case like yours. Druids?” Gruff said.

“Yes,” Keith said.

“I’m Jiore,” he said.

“Keith.” Jiore eyed Keith up and down with a quirked eye-ridge.

“So why did they _really_ capture you?”

“I’m the Red Paladin of Voltron,” Keith said as he sliced off the lock on the cage with his dagger, freeing the lizard folks.

“The same suicidal paladin who dared challenge Zarkon one-on-one?” Jiore said.

“Yes,” Keith said. Jiore chuckled and shook his head.

“We’d better tie up Hotor and Farlan before they wake. Hotor is sympathetic to our cause but Farlan is a staunch loyalist, even if he’s a lazy crew member. You’d better tie me up as well. And to you, there is a cave in that direction. We Galra cannot track you there,” Jiore said, “Too much interference.”

“You, we thank,” the apparent leader of the lizard people said.

“Wait, before you go, I have someone to return to you,” Keith said holding a hand out at the lizard folks.

———— ——————

Hoda had eaten the whole roasted animal when Keith arrived at his campfire with Hoda’s parents.

“Sorry, I am. Very hungry I was.”

Once they relocated to the cave, and Keith moved his lion, he was able to share in the larger feast the lizard people made from that beast the three Galra officers had wanted for dinner. If Keith was asked, the meat sort of tasted like pork.

_——— ———_

_“Where did you get that dagger?” Jiore had asked as Keith was using bits of metal and some salvaged chains to bind him and the other galra around trees._

_“I’ve always had it.”_

_“Family heirloom I presume?” Jiore said. Keith stared at him,_

_“Why does that matter?”_

_“Was it?” Jiore said._

_“My father said it was my mother’s and she got it from her father,” Keith said, “Why?”_

_“That metal was the trademark of the Iyurians. My people, I’m ashamed to say, exterminated their kind. Now I find that they’ve done so again by overwriting your DNA,” Jiore said with a sigh, “Iyurians looked very much like Alteans, but rounder ears and they were very sensitive to quintessence.” Keith felt like he’d been punched in the gut._

_“Th-thank you for telling me this,” Keith said after a few moments._

_“I can’t undo what was done to you,” Jiore said, “I cannot even begin to apologize so, I won’t. Use this to your advantage, and make them regret ever making you one of us. Restore honor to my race, Keith.” Keith was silent as he finished tying up Jiore._

_“I’ll try,” Keith said before he knocked Jiore out._

_——————————————— ——————_

Keith ate his fill and the lizard people were kind enough to let him hunt with them for a few days and showed him out to dry the meat using a method that sped it up immensely that was a sort of natural dehydrator. Armed with dried meat from three large animals, as well as refilling the water tanks in Red, Keith was set for a few weeks in space. He hoped he wouldn’t need it. 

Strictly speaking, those water tanks were part of Red’s cooling system, but Keith had found a way to siphon some of it off for himself after Red showed him how. 

_————————————————— ————————_

_After the crew was reamed out for letting a cub take them unawares, Jiore and his cohorts were assigned KP duty for a week. To Jiore, that was hardly a punishment. In fact, his crew mates preferred it when Jiore was the cook. The food was at least half-edible._

_“You’re burning it! Where is your head?” Jiore shrugged. He had felt bad lying to that cub, but he wasn’t going to be the one to tell that child that his dagger bore the personal symbol of Zarkon’s household and the age the cub looked…._

 

_Jiore refused to destroy one of the elements of hope they had in the universe by telling him he was Zarkon’s grandson._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this lives up to Lab Rat. There is more coming. I promise. :D


End file.
